Athletics

Women’s Rowing Varsity Four Takes Home Gold at Dad Vail Regatta

Team Wins Margaret McNiff Trophy
For Second Time in Program History

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. –To end the 2018 Dad Vail Regatta, No. 2 Florida Tech took home the Margaret McNiff Trophy for the second time in program history, first in 36 years since 1982. The Panthers also took home bronze in the JV4 Final and placed fifth in the Women’s Pair Final.

After a dominate Day 1 start in both the Time Trial and Semifinal events, Leigh-Riane Amsterdam and Graysen Pensch took to the Schuylkill for today’s Women’s Pair Final and finished fifth with a course time of 8:25.054 against Grand Valley, Pittsburgh, SSC rival Nova Southeastern, and Brock.

Working their way through 27 entries to qualify for this afternoon’s JV4 Final, Summer Rhodes, Shaula Rey, Emily Hall, Ally McCarron, and Taylor Greene corralled the bronze in what seemed to be a fairly tight race at the finish. The shell ended the course with a time of 7:34.577 and finished only 4.2 seconds off first place, Bowdoin.

“Having all three crews qualify for Finals today was great to see considering the fact that we do not normally get to race in some of those events”, said assistant coach Tim Desrosiers.

Conquering the gold for the first time in 36 years, the Varsity Four Heavy Weight shell of Taylor Stoni, Natalia Arasa Bonavila, Federica Pala, Theresa Gadilhe, and Irina Djurovic took home the gilded trophy for Florida Tech after it crossed the finish line with a time of 7:09.821, overlapping the Bowdoin boat by three seconds. During the race, the Panthers also powered past the NCAA DI crews of Drexel, Boston University, University of Massachusets-Lowell, and Lafayette.

The Margaret McNiff Trophy is also a first for head coach Adam Thorstad and Desrosiers since their tenures began back in 2006 and 2014.

When asked about the V4 Heavy Weight’s performance, Desrosiers said, “I’m very proud of the adaptability and resilience the women have shown this year, an am glad to see that their hard work paid off.”

The Panthers will now prepare for the NCAA DII Championships set to begin on Friday, May 25-27, 2018. The Championships will take place in Sarasota, Fla., at Nathan Benderson Park, where the Crimson and Gray were crowned 2018 SSC Champions for the second consecutive year.